SunEdison Plans Solar Expansion in Australia.

The best performing US Solar Company, SunEdison, is targeting the rooftops of Australia’s airports, universities and retirement homes.

Managing Director of its local unit Jeremy Rich said in a phone interview that the company is seeking to install about 50 MW of solar power over the next 12 months in Australia and expects its team to grow to about 50 people.

“It’s the sunniest continent on earth, and as Australians know, electricity prices are very high, so solar enables people to have good amounts of savings,” he said. The prospects for energy storage are another factor drawing SunEdison, he said.

SunEdison joins a number of companies seeking to expand in solar power in Australia, where about 1.4 million homes have installed panels on their roofs since 2001, the most in the world as a proportion of total households, according to the Melbourne-based Grattan Institute.

SunEdison, which entered the Australian market when it acquired installation company Energy Matters Group last year, sees rooftop space in the nationâ€™s commercial sector as an untapped opportunity, Rich said.

So far this year SunEdison has gained 62 percent, the most among U.S. companies on the Bloomberg Intelligence Global Large Solar index. This week it raised about $403 million to help buy renewable energy plants in emerging markets, and purchased wind and solar projects in Central America and Asia.